Lynn Painter

Prom night has arrived, and Wes Bennett couldn’t be less excited.

Not only is he not going with Liz, the girl he’s loved his entire life, but Liz is going with Michael, the guy she’s loved her entire life. Talk about a nightmare.

They manage to avoid each other at the event, but every glance he steals of her in that gown, smiling up at her date, feels like a punch to his solar plexus.

But when she’s waiting for him after he ditches the dance, he realizes that nothing about the prom even matters.

Because Liz Buxbaum, in Chuck Taylors and a sweatshirt under the streetlight that shines above their spot, is actually far better than the prom.

Better than the Prom

Kimmy Hobden

Her eyebrows went down in a patented Liz scowl that made me so happy I wanted to spin her around and mess up her hair. She said. "Bennett, no one is totally flawless-come on. She's pretty dang close, though."

I shrugged like I didn't care, bracing myself for her glorious overreaction when I said. "I suppose.”

"You suppose?" My Liz was fired-up, and it was perfection. She said, "What on earth could she possibly be lacking? Do you want bigger boobs or something? Is she not-“

I swallowed down emotion-the girl made me so damn weak-and said, "She. Isn't. You."

She closed her mouth and looked at me, her wild green eyes everywhere on my face like she wanted to believe me.

"She's pretty, but her face doesn‘t transform into sunlight when she talks about music. She's funny, but not spit-out-your drink-in-astonishment funny.“

“I fell in love with teasing you in the second grade, when I first discovered that I could turn your cheeks pink with just a word. Then I fell in love with you.”

Liz threw her head back and started laughing—hard—and it was impossible not to join her. I wondered what she’d think if she knew the quote from Jerry McGuire—You complete me—flashed through my very soul as I watched her laugh.

Buxbaum, I’ve waited my whole life for you. For the love of God, put me out of my misery and let me woo you with coffee and chocolate sprinkles.

“Anything you want, Buxbaum. As long as I’m with you, it will be the perfect day.”

Sophia

 secret. She was this incredible thing I'd know about but everyone else seemed to miss. The treasure hidden in plain sight, the fortune of a lifetime that was somehow only visible to me.

Her dress was just as incredible as it'd been in the picture she'd texted me, but I felt, like, 

, but pissed that it had become a different dress entirely.

Now it was the dress that she'd put on for Michael, the dress that would be in all the pictures that her dad and Helena had surely taken.

 would be forever be archived as what she wore to prom with Michael Young, and I was homesick for the 

, when it was the dress she'd tried on because I told her white was her color.

As I watched her talking intently to him, their faces close, he smiled down at her and I thought they were going to kiss. 

 - my breath got stuck in my lungs as I watched them, unable to look away.

But then he leaned down and hugged her, which was worse.

Okay, maybe not worse, but still terrible.

The little shit looked satisfied, absolutely thrilled that she'd tortured me, and I yanked on the drawstring. "That's not supposed to make you happy."

"Can I please ask out your daughter first?" I yelled in the general direction of the porch, desperate to set it up before the night ended.

Liz Buxbaum was in my arms and happy to be there; obviously the night was magic, which made me terrified of broken spells, forgotten glass slippers, and discarded pumpkins.

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